Conventionally, some gateway apparatuses are placed between a network transmitting and receiving a command for monitoring or controlling building equipment such as air conditioning or lighting equipment installed in a building or the like and a host system of building management performing a total operation of monitoring and controlling an equipment group of those. Others are placed between two or more network systems whose protocols are different from each other. The conventional gateway apparatuses mutually connect those networks and systems. According to those conventional gateway apparatuses, an object handling the systems to be processed and mapping to an object as a mutual correspondence are to be set up individually for each system and held in software produced for each applicable article in some cases. In other cases, several preset items of setup information are held and one to be used is selected from among those. Accordingly, it is necessary to update software when the setup information is altered.
As a second conventional example, some including Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 05-173795 are directed to solving such a problem. They are provided with a relation management object for managing bi-directional related information between two or more objects. Then, it attempts to perform the maintenance of mapping and the like between objects by handling this relation management object.
According to the conventional gateway apparatuses mentioned above which have built-in individual software provided for each article, data is exchanged by way of a gateway apparatus which has built-in software holding statistically objects handled by the network systems of both sides and mapping relating information as a mutual correspondence, in the case where a network transmitting and receiving a monitor or control command to and from building equipment such as air conditioning or lighting equipment and a building management system which performs a total operation of controlling and monitoring a group of such equipment are configured based on different protocols from each other in a building system, for example.
For that reason, it is needed to update the software itself when the setup information is altered. As a result, a lot of time and cost are required when the state of a system connected has been changed or the mapping specification has been altered.
Still more, in the case of connecting a large number of network systems to one another, since it is necessary that the gateway apparatus should hold all the information relating to those connected networks, a larger amount of memory capacity is required. Therefore the gateway apparatus has become expensive.
As a third conventional and concrete example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 6-169315 has proposed a method for solving such a problem. According to this method, mapping information is generated according to a connected system through a mapping process provided on the gateway apparatus. Then, the mapping information is updated according to a change in the state of a connected system through a mapping update process provided on the gateway apparatus.
A setup of mapping information in the conventional gateway apparatuses is made as mentioned above. This has posed a problem of a lot of time and cost required when a connected system has a change in such as its configuration or the mapping specification (correspondence) is altered.
Another problem is that since a setup of mapping requires full knowledge of the connected systems of both parties and deep understanding of interrelation with the object relating to the systems, a highly skilled engineer is needed.
With referring to the second conventional example, the mapping information between the objects of both parties is held by the relation management object. For that reason, a mapping setter should have full knowledge of the systems of both parties for mapping at the same time. Another problem is that when a change occurs with one system, it is needed that the setup of mapping is reset and made again under reconsideration of the state of the other system.
With referring to the third conventional example, the generation and updating process of mapping is performed on the gateway apparatus. For that reason, in order to handle a change in the system to be processed and an alteration in the mapping algorithm and the like, it is needed to update the built-in software.
In addition, since the generation and updating process is performed on the gateway apparatus, the processing load of the gateway apparatus becomes large. As a result, the gateway apparatus becomes expensive.
The present invention is directed to solving such problems mentioned above. It is an object to obtain the mapping device for gateway apparatus in which a setup of mapping may be made without full knowledge of the network system of the other party in the system where an interconnection is made between different network systems A and B run based on different protocols from each other through a mutual mapping of objects representing the respective systems. In addition, it is designed that even if a change occurs in one of the network systems, the change does not influence the setup information of the other network system.
In addition, it provides simple and easy development in setup, monitor and control by using a view, so that the format is intelligible for the user as well.
Another object is to generate a more precise and appropriate mapping.
Still another object is to obtain the apparatus which is responsive to an operation based change in the network system without difficulties.
Still another object is to provide the gateway apparatus which requires neither updating built-in software provided in the gateway apparatus nor having complicated operations performed on the gateway apparatus such as the generation and updating process of mapping information based on setup data even when a connected system is changed, the mapping specification is altered, or the mapping algorithm is changed. Hence, the development cost, engineering cost, and hardware cost of the gateway apparatus are held down low.
Still another object is to provide the gateway setup tool which allows an easy setup without full knowledge of interrelation between the connected systems of both parties. In addition, it is possible to use a sophisticated user interface in making a setup. Hence, the setup efficiency and the engineering cost of the gateway setup tool are high and held down low, respectively.
Still another object is to provide the gateway apparatus and the gateway setup tool which may be produced by using a generally and widely available application program such as a WEB browser. Hence, the development cost and the engineering cost of the gateway apparatus and the gateway setup tool are held down low.